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Chris Spring drives Canada into third spot in four-man race at FIBT World Cup

From front to back, Canada's Chris Spring, Timothy Randall, Adam Rosenke and Ben Coakwell celebrate after racing to a third-place finish during the four-man bobsled World Cup event in Whistler, B.C., on Saturday November 24, 2012. /

Chris Spring, left, and Jesse Lumsden, of Canada, joke around as they wait for other racers to finish before ending up in fifth-place during the men's two-man bobsled World Cup event in Whistler, B.C., on Friday November 23, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

From front to back, Canada's Chris Spring, Timothy Randall, Adam Rosenke and Ben Coakwell celebrate after racing to a third-place finish during the four-man bobsled World Cup event in Whistler, B.C., on Saturday November 24, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

WHISTLER -- Ten months ago, Chris Spring was sprawled on a bobsleigh track in Germany, blood pooling around him from a massive cut on his right buttock inflicted by a 20-centimetre shard of wood.

A devastating crash had sent his four-man sled into the roof over the track. The sled was destroyed, its front axle ripping through the bottom of the sled and leaving it a mangled mess.

Spring believed his sliding career was over.

Remarkably, the Australian-born Canadian returned to start the current FIBT World Cup season. And Saturday, the comeback reached a glorious high as Spring posted his first ever podium finish, driving Canada 2 into third place in a four-man race at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

"I'm going to be smiling for a long time here," said a beaming Spring. "To come away with this bronze medal, especially after last season . . . It was a little interrupted and I had some problems."

A little interrupted? Some problems? That's like saying the NHL lockout has just put the league on a brief hiatus because of a minor labor problem.

Spring, who opened this season with a 10th at Lake Placid, N.Y., and then a career-best four-man result of eighth last weekend in Park City, Utah., was fourth after the first run.

Cracking the podium, though, looked iffy given that he was behind Olympic gold medalist Steven Holcomb of the U.S. and two strong Russian sleds, including one piloted by Alexander Zubkov, who had won the first two races and who would go on to take the win at Whistler.

But Spring put down a terrific second run of 52.05 seconds, then watched intensely on the monitor as Holcomb faltered to a 52.23. Spring's two-run combined time of one minute, 43.54 seconds was six/100ths ahead of the American's time and .54 back of Zubkov.

"To be honest, I thought Holcie was going to lay down another good run as he always does. Unfortunately, it wasn't his day today. To see those red numbers come up for him at the end . . . I can't really describe it right now.

"It's something a little out of body for me," added Spring as he and his self-dubbed Canada Who crew of Tim Randall, Adam Rosenke and Ben Coakwell stood with arms around each other's shoulders. "I'm just really having a good time with it."

The easy-going native of Darwin said the crash in Altenberg, Germany, is always on his mind. And seeing two sleds -- Belgium 1 and USA 3 -- roll onto their sides in the second run was disconcerting.

"But I don't want to put anything down to, you know, trying to come back from disaster or anything. I just take it as it comes. The secret to success is just having a good time and we showed that today."

To get his first World Cup podium at Whistler was also significant for Spring.

He was training in Canada, but sliding for Australia at the time of the 2010 Olympics, but never actually got to race in the Games. His two-man brakeman injured his back in training and the brakeman for the other Aussie sled sustained a concussion,leaving the under-funded country with not enough crew members for Spring to race the four-man competition.

Spring had racked up $55,000 in debt to slide at the Olympics. Sensing the situation wouldn't get any better, he made the decision to join Bobsleigh Canada and obtain Canadian citizenship.

It was a terrific Whistler World Cup for Spring, who posted a career-best two-man result of fifth on Friday with ex-CFL running back Jesse Lumsden as his brakeman.

Canada's top pilot, Lyndon Rush, of Humboldt, Sask., continued to struggle with his new four-man sled, making crucial errors in each of his runs. Rush, the 2010 Olympic bronze medalist, was eighth, despite the fact he and his crew of Lumsden, Lascelles Brown and Neville Wright posted the third-best push time in both runs.

"It's disappointing when you don't do well, especially on a track that you drive well on and push well at," said Rush, who was sixth and 12th in the opening two races of the season.

"The new sled drives wonderfully. It didn't at first, so that's what we focused on. When I first got it, it was awful, I was scared of it. Then we worked on it and I love the way it handles now, but we haven't been fast in it yet."

Rush, who was second in Friday night's two-man race, was also still upset that the Canadian coaching staff had used Lumsden and another of his crew, Cody Sorenson, to push the two-man sleds of Spring and Justin Kripps of Summerland at Whistler.

"All weeks my guys do extra runs because they need to do runs with the other pilots. Extra runs, then they race the two-man and then the four-man. And they're high-performance machines and I think we pushed (just) okay today. The whole plan leading into this was this was going to be the race where we dominate the push and we didn't."

Tom de la Hunty, the Canadian head coach, said that with the World Cup circuit now moving to Europe, he will return to the normal teams that started the season. But he that will change again at the world championship in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in late January.

"The world championships is a no-brainer. We are going with the very best athletes pushing the best guys."

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